French Army Walt

ADC

I hasten to say that as a civvie I am not even remotely trying to walt find - I just found this story from today's South China Morning Post in Hong Kong amusing.

Courtroom descends into French farce

Loretta Fong - Updated on Mar 06, 2010

The District Court became an examination room yesterday as a self-professed avid fan of war games and rocket science - due for sentence for setting off a rocket in a Mong Kok alley - was given an ad hoc French test after claiming he had served as a soldier in France.

However, despite telling the court that he had served in France for more than six months, Chan Yiu-shing failed two French tests administered by Judge Mary Yuen Lai-wah.

She first asked him to write a few sentences in French. Chan said he couldn't write but could speak the language.

He was then asked to introduce himself in French and to ask someone "to get him a pistol", which he was unable to do.

Yuen then said to him: "You go to tell your colleague: 'I'm hungry. I want to have beef, potato and apple pie. You go to find someone to get a yellow jacket and a pair of green pants'." But the only French words Chan managed to say were "Je veux" ["I want"] and he managed to say the English words "hungry" and "beef", but with a French accent.

Chan complained: "(The sentences) were too long. I couldn't say ... And I spoke English there [in France]."

Asked why he spoke English in France, he said he was in the army with men from various countries. "They were international soldiers. Some were from the mainland [China], Middle East and Romania. So I spoke Putonghua to the Chinese, and the others I spoke to in English."

Chan, 28, was due to be sentenced yesterday for possession of an explosive substance after pleading guilty to the charge on February 19.

However, Yuen remanded him in custody for sentence on March 26 pending a psychological report, remarking: "He made me feel kind of insecure," she said. "I have never encountered a time when it was so difficult to sentence someone."